He is not here.....

Luke 24:5-7 (NIV)
5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' "

He is not here....the more I think about it, the more excited I feel about 4 little words. Christian faith boils down to those 4 words. If he was there when the women came, he could not have been who he said he was. He had told his disciples that he would die, but would rise again. They didn't get it. Even when some of them saw him later. He couldn't be alive, they had seen him die a horrible death. Yet there they were, the stone was gone, his body was gone and they were told that Jesus was NOT there, He was among the living not the dead.

When Jesus had gone to Martha after hearing of the death of Lazarus, her brother and his friend:

John 11:25-26 (NIV) Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

Do you? He is not here......